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Canada blames U.S. for Omar Khadr transfer delays

The Canadian government claims in court documents that they only became aware of psychological assessments of Guantanamo prisoner Omar Khadr through media reports in February, despite the fact that the existence of this material had been widely reported since 2010.

Omar Khadr — who’s been in Guantanamo Bay since 2002 — was eligible to return to Canada to complete his sentence starting in October 2011.
(Janet Hamlin / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The Canadian government claims in court documents that they only became aware of psychological assessments of Guantanamo prisoner Omar Khadr through media reports in February, despite the fact that the existence of this material had been widely reported since 2010.

Ottawa is defending itself against accusations that the government has deliberately delayed the transfer of Khadr to Canadian custody to serve the remainder of his sentence.

The suggestion that Canada was not fully aware of the evidence in Khadr’s case before signing a diplomatic deal in October 2010 for his transfer is likely to further anger Pentagon officials who have privately lashed out at Canada’s inaction.

A senior Obama administration official close to the case said Ottawa was well aware of the interviews with psychiatrists hired for the prosecution.

“Duped my a--,” the official quipped to the Toronto Star in an interview earlier this year to suggestions that Ottawa was strong-armed by the U.S. into the transfer deal – a condition that convinced Khadr to plead guilty.

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Khadr, 25, has been in U.S. custody since shot and captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan in July 2002.

In October 2010, Khadr pleaded guilty before a Guantanamo court to five war crimes, including murder for the death of U.S. Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer. He was given an eight-year sentence and a diplomatic agreement that Canada would “favourably” consider his transfer after one more year served in Guantanamo.

The government documents, filed in the Federal Court Thursday in response to an application by Khadr’s lawyers that argues the government’s delay is an “abuse of process,” outlines Ottawa’s timeline in handling the case.

An affidavit by Mary Campbell, the director general of the corrections and criminal justice directorate at the Public Safety Ministry, stated that Khadr’s application had been processed by October 2011 — one year after his guilty plea.

But Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ office would not consider the application, the documents state, until the U.S. signed off on Khadr’s transfer and notified Congress. That news reached Canada on April 13, 2012.

Then it took until May 23 for the file to reach Toews desk — a delay not explained in the documents.

The reasons for the next delay concerned the interviews U.S. psychiatrist Michael Welner and Alan Hopwell conducted with Khadr — assessments Ottawa maintains they knew nothing about until February.

Khadr’s lawyers say they wonder how Ottawa was unaware of the reports and Welner’s video when they were discussed in a variety of pre-trial hearings in early 2010 — hearings where a Canadian government observer was almost always present.

“The existence of the videotapes has never been a secret,” said Toronto lawyer John Norris. “Anyone who followed the trial knew about them.”

On Oct. 20, 2010, three days before the diplomatic deal was finalized, the National Post also ran a feature on Welner where he discusses some of his findings.

Washington handed over the reports and video to Ottawa last week.

Toews’ office denies a report made late Wednesday that a decision has been made approving Khadr’s transfer.

Citing unnamed sources, the Huffington Post reported that Khadr is likely to be transferred back to Canada before the U.S. presidential election in November.

However the report also stated that the transfer date “has yet to be set and none of the timelines finalized.”

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